BERGAMO
Overview
Date/time interval
Syllabus
Course Objectives
The course aims to teach the constituent elements of economic policy, understood as the branch of economics that studies the effects of public intervention on the economic system. The main objective is to develop the skills necessary to understand the objectives and instruments of economic policy. By the end of the course, students will have acquired the basic concepts for assessing the impact of public intervention on the economy, both through:
- the study and comparison of different theoretical models
- the empirical analysis
- the institutional analysis.
Course Prerequisites
Please consult the programme website for the compulsory propaedeutics required: https://lt-eco.unibg.it/it/node/119
Teaching Methods
Teaching will be mainly through lectures and seminars, but with particular emphasis on interaction with students, who will be able to formulate suggestions for further study or debate during lectures. Some lectures will involve the use of the free econometric software Gretl to replicate some empirical estimates comparing Keynesian and Monetarist approaches.
Deliverables related to empirical estimates' lectures can accumulate bonus points up to a maximum of 6.
Assessment Methods
Verification of learning will be through a final written test. There will be no supplementary oral.
Mode and content of the test will be the same for attending and non-attending students.
The first part of the exam will be structured with a true/false test. Students who pass the test (minimum grade 6/10) will gain access to the second part.
The second part will consist of 6 multiple-choice and 2 open-ended questions in which students' economic analysis and reasoning skills will be assessed. Each individual answer will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
- relevance to the question;
- comprehensiveness with respect to the question;
- proposal of appropriate connections;
- synthesis (no redundancy or repetition);
- propriety of language;
- clarity of exposition.
The final grade will be expressed in thirtieths.
Contents
The course covers the following topics:
- Economic Policy Theory
- Public intervention in the economy
- Macroeconomic policies (Keynesians, Monetarists, New Classical Macroeconomists, and recent heterodox approaches)
- The fiscal policy multiplier and the monetary policy multiplier: an empirical analysis
- Fiscal policy and public debt sustainability
- Inflation and deflationary policies (the Barro Gordon model and its limitations)
- Public debt and growth: what causal link? (The instrumental variables method)
- The Italian case: the relevance of foreign constraint.
- Introduction to the evaluation of public policy effects, the diff-in-diff method.
- Monetary policy: objectives, strategies and theories of central banking.
- Economic policy in a wartime context
Some of the attending students may be selected to participate in a research workshop on local development policy run by Dr. Emanuele Belotti. The deliveries related to the lab will replace some parts of the exam program.
Online Resources
More information
The reference texts are distinguished between compulsory texts and in-depth texts, which are recommended for those who have the curiosity to delve into some specific topics:
Mandatory books and papers
1. Handbooks
- Marelli, E. e Signorelli, M. (2025), Politica economica. Giappichelli. (capitoli: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 18, 19)
- Martini, A. e Sisti, M. (2009), "Valutare il successo delle politiche pubbliche", Il Mulino, Bologna (capitoli 7-11).
- Lucarelli, S. (2025), Il tempo di Ares. Politiche internazioanali, "leggi" economiche e guerre, Mondadori.
2. Papers
- Lucarelli, S. & Romano, R. (2016), The Italian Crisis within the European Crisis. The Relevance of the Technological Foreign, World Economic Review, http://wer.worldeconomicsassociation.org/files/WEA-WER-6-LucarelliRomano.pdf
- Pasinetti, L.L. 1998, “The Myth (or Folly) of the 3% Deficit/GDP Maastricht ‘Parameter’”, Cambridge Journal of Economics, vol. 22, pp. 103-16. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/http://gesd.free.fr/pasi98.pdf
- Panizza, U. & Presbitero, A. F. 2012, Public Debt and Economic Growth: Is There a Causal Effect?, MoFiR working paper, No. 65. http://polis.unipmn.it/pubbl/RePEc/uca/ucapdv/panizza198.pdf
3. Further reading texts
- AA.VV. (2023), L'inflazione. Falsi miti e conflitto distributivo, Punto Rosso.
- Alesina, A. e Roubini, N. (2004), Economia elettorale. Tra promesse e realtà, EGEA.
- Angrist, J.D. & Pischke, J.S. (2008), Mostly Harmless Econometrics, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joshua_Angrist/publication/51992844...'s_Companion/links/00b4953344a9a0cb13000000/Mostly-Harmless-Econometrics-An-Empiricists-Companion.pdf
- Bianchi, C. (1988), Politica economica, in Dizionario di Economia Politica, a cura di G. Lunghini, Boringhieri.
- Brancaccio, E. (2021) Anti-Blanchard, Franco Angeli.
- D'Acunto, S- (2022), con la collaborazione di Suppa D., Conflitto sociale, instabilità macroeconomica e modelli di regolazione, Giappichelli
- Keynes, J.M. (1991), La fine del 'laissez-faire' e altri scritti. Introduzione di Giorgio Lunghini, Bollati-Boringhieri.
- Romano, R. e Lucarelli, S. (2017), Squilibrio, Ediesse.
- Sylos Labini, P. (2004), Torniamo a classici. Produttività del lavoro, progresso tecnico e sviluppo economico, Laterza, Roma-Bari.